Marblehead Arts Association

Preserving the King Hooper Mansion!

As part of our mission the MAA is committed to the preservation of the King Hooper Mansion, home of the MAA since 1938. During the month of January the mansion is closed for renovations. Although we will not be open to the public during this period, staff members will continue to service the membership by processing our annual appeal donations, new memberships, answering emails and phone messages. We will re-open on February 1st in time for our new member exhibit with the opening reception on Sunday, February 5, 2–4pm.

The work is being done primarily in the Parlor Gallery (first gallery on the left) and the Dining Room Gallery (middle room) and includes re-enforcing support beams, repairing a sill, insulating walls, updating electricity and new flooring in the Dining Room. We are fortunate to have an endowment created many years ago that is used only for the purpose of maintaining the infrastructure of the mansion.

We have a great team on this project including our House Committee Chair, Chris Butler, Buswell Brothers Construction, and Robinson Electricians. A big thank you also goes out to MAA members, John Wathne of Structures North Consulting Engineers, who provided structural engineering expertise and Bruce Greenwald of D. Bruce Greenwald Associates, who provided architectural expertise, both at no cost to the MAA.

It is always interesting to be reminded of the history of the house and how it came to be the home of our vibrant arts organization. Please enjoy the history of the King Hooper Mansion.

History of the King Hooper Mansion

The King Hooper Mansion is a fine preservation of a mid-eighteenth century house, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the home of the Marblehead Arts Association.

The original house was built by Greenfield Hooper, a candle maker, in 1728. It was set sideways to the street and had five stories in the back. It was a simple colonial style and had a gambrel roof. When he died in 1745, Greenfield Hooper left it to his oldest son, Robert. A founder of the local fishing business, he had become one of New England’s wealthiest shipping merchants, with 31 boats in Boston Harbor engaged in the “triangle trade” between the British Isles, the West Indies and New England.

Affectionately called “King” by his sailors and the townspeople, he needed a grander and more spacious home to give evidence of his acquired wealth and allow for elegant entertaining. King Hooper added the front part of the house (which you are in now) in a more refined early Georgian style, with a wood facade that resembled stone masonry, embellished with corner quoins and dental moldings at the eaves. A pleasant blend of time periods and styles in the interior remains.

Hooper’s fortunes dwindled as a result of the Revolution (he was a Tory remaining faithful to the English King) and he fled to Halifax, Nova Scotia. He died in 1790 and this house was sold to Justice Samuel Sewall. Hooper family members continued to rent and live here until 1819 when it was traded for the schooner “Economy” to Jason Chamberlain. His heirs converted a front room to a dry goods store. At some point, the cornice woodwork in the front left parlor was remodeled in the neoclassical or “Federal” style.

When sold to the YMCA in 1888 the house became a gymnasium of sorts and several floors had to be replaced (the dining room floor being one). The third floor ballroom became a basketball gym. Later the mansion functioned as a tearoom, then headquarters for the Boy Scouts and eventually an antique emporium owned by Isaac Sacks.

By 1937 the Depression had left its mark and the house had deteriorated. As it was about to be auctioned, the Marblehead Arts Association intervened and bought the mansion as a restoration project and a center for the arts. It now serves as year-round gallery space for exhibitions (the art changes every month) studios and classrooms for many courses, function rooms for MAA events as well as rental facilities for meetings, wedding receptions and private parties.